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Sunday, May 5, 2013

C2E2 2013: A Convention Experience From Someone Who Has Been Away For Awhile

One of the many welcome banners

Last weekend I managed to con my way in to C2E2 by which I, of
course, mean I managed to get a job at the convention center and was able to
enjoy the main convention floor for free.
I worked Saturday and Sunday over 12 hours across both days but I was
able to find time to walk around the floor and take in the whole experience and
what an experience it was.

This
was my first convention in over ten years.
Where I grew up, a small town outside a small capital city (so adjust your expectations appropriately) back then being a “geek” was something you did in
private. These conventions were a haven
almost exclusively reserved for guys like Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons and young,
young kids who were just discovering comics, which most parents hoped was just a phase. I went to the biggest
convention every year plus a couple lesser conventions throughout the year for
quite a while. But when I turned 17,
during the last convention I would attend for over a decade, I realized that I
was stuck in kind of an awkward middle.
I had become the oldest of the young kids but I was still the youngest man and the old timers didn't take kindly to me. It would normally just be me and a handful of
peers while the rest of the convention goers were either cynical older men who
had made comic book collecting their begrudged living or grade schoolers with
their parents. So at that point I kind
of decided to put my geekiness aside and then I spent the next 10 years denying
that it was ever a part of my life. But
these conventions were almost entirely comic books, rows and rows and rows of
short and long boxes. Private collectors
selling their excess, comic book stores from all over the tri state area and a
couple of toy sellers. Occasionally you
would get a silver age artist or a major artist who happened to live locally to
sign things or on rare occasions draw an original for you. The last convention I attended I happened to
be huge into the Justice Society, Dr. Mid-Nite especially, and Irwin Hasen was
the biggest name there and he drew a Dr. Mid-Nite for me. There was a very small artist alley of course
but there were rarely ever panels and there was NO ONE in costume. All in all it was a very sober affair where
it was a place mostly for businesses to do business with each other. There was a lot of trading goods and stores
buying from each other to bring new goods back to their local area. It felt like fan participation was an almost
unwelcome byproduct of these people doing getting together to bolster, diversify and
refresh their inventory. I just don’t
remember it being very raucous at all, it was loud and crowded but that was
really more due to the incredibly small spaces afforded to this event. But it wasn't necessarily "fun" or "interesting" it was just utilitarian, I needed comic books and these places had more comic books than my local comic store. Plus they occasionally had different toys than my local toy store.

Some local flavor

So that
had been my experience up until last weekend.
I, of course, knew that cosplay had exploded in the meantime and I had
known that conventions had evolved, I knew all that on a conceptual level but I
had never really experienced it. A part
of me was still stuck in the convention scene of a small town at the start of
the 2000’s no matter how many pictures I saw.
To me, for some stupid reason, these ‘super conventions’ that I saw
people in costume at were things only VIP’s went to. Why would a normal person attend? It was for the best of the best. Do they even sell comics at these things
anymore? Isn't it just basically a big
social convention where people go to meet celebrities and attend panels and
dress up? Surely not just anybody could
get in could they? But no, that wasn't true at all.

Some amazing original art I got and not some bootlegs. I don't usually like to support bootleggers but if I can't get it legitimately, if the companies don't want my money, then I'll give my money to someone else, hypothetically. Not pictured: all the action figures I bought.

First off I was struck by the sheer magnitude of the venue. McCormick Place is huge, at one point I got lost and was told that I had to walk 3-5 BLOCKS in the other direction and at no point did I even have to GO OUTSIDE. While I was lost I wandered into a transition area that connected buildings that was bigger than any of the previous convention centers I had ever been to.

Then when I finally found my way to the convention area I was greeted by a DJ playing awesome music, a dancing Wampa and a full costume, incredibly intricate and awesome Durge. Then it was just a sea of people with cosplayers sprinkled throughout. I couldn't help but smile, I had never seen so many of my own kind in one spot.

There had to be thousands total but perhaps
hundreds were milling about in front of the entrance to the main convention
floor. Inside was just amazing, there was more to take in then I
could have ever anticipated. The booths,
the costumes, the visuals and the sounds. I've heard of “con funk” but I never noticed a smell that was beyond
what you would expect from such a huge number of people stuck together in a relatively
small space. There was a rest/eating
area that was the size of the conventions I was used to at the center of the show floor.

Yes, yes I did.

It was just so overwhelming to such
a degree that it was breath taking.My
brain was going a mile a minute the first couple hours of my first shift.Is that a celebrity?It was, it was Amber Benson!Is that G’Nort?Yes, yes it was.Is that booth selling bootleg DVD’s?Yes it was, they were selling the 1960’s Batman
TV series and I may have, hypothetically, bought one.But I saw bootlegs of the Gen13 movie, the
Generation X TV movie, the Fantastic Four (1994) movie, just everything.Up until now I got my very few, hypothetical, bootlegs from
a friend, now I know where he got them from.There were comic books upon comic books upon comic books, masses of
action figures, artists both famous and starting and original art.It was a great experience, it was overwhelming and it’s
all a bit too much to really express in words actually. But I can say that if this is what conventions are now days then
count me in, I look forward to attending many more.

I came out on my last day to Silent Hill. My one piece of advice is "Don't park in B lot".